Chapter 18, everyone!

I plan to get the next chapter out in the near future so hopefully you won't have to wait too long.

Thanks for sticking with it so far and I hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 18: 'WHERE'S WALDO'

"Alright - crunchtime."

The five of us huddled in the middle of the beds as Nico led the conversation that would further lead to our next plan of action. The rest from the night before was probably the best sleep I had gotten in a while. For once, there were no nightmares. I simply shut my eyes and once they opened it was already the next day. It could be that Melinoe had enough of us, thanks to Nico. Wasn't sure how it was for the others, but they didn't seem any different than usual.

What did stand out was that we all seemed to be rarin' to go due to those few hours of sleep we got in the tank. Most of our things were already packed and we were just waiting on the next step of guidance that Nico was about to lay on us.

Nico looked first at Flip. "Flip, what do you know about the Silk Road?"

As sure as the son of Hades sounded, I could tell he preferred not having to talk so much but even so; he carried on with confidence.

"Ummm, it's a rumor. You hear whispers here and there, people mentioning it but no one's actually ever seen the thing," Flip answered.

"Right, you know why?"

"Nope."

"Well, that means it's doing its job. The place is meant to be hidden under layers of discretion. Not even the gods know where it is, supposedly. My suspicion is the place is being covered by some deep magic and a special one at that. From what I could gather, the only way you can actually find the place is through these people called merchants."

We all gave him a clueless look that prompted him to continue explaining.

"Merchants. They're like the employees or workers of the place, I think. They hide in plain sight, scattered around the city. It's said if you find one, they can lead you to the entrance."

"So we just need to find one of these 'merchants'?" Val concluded.

"Yeah but, naturally, that's a task within itself."

"Naturally," Emile grunted over his shoulder, fiddling with the tools that were in his leather bundle.

"It's almost like a 'Where's Waldo' for us half-bloods. Only we will know it when we see it."

"So where do we start?" I said, staring at those baggy eyes.

The same eyes blinked a few times before answering. "With a statue."

The four of us looked at Nico in confusion before glancing at each other with the same expression. It was like one silent 'huh?' that we all managed to share.

"Huh?" D grunted.

As we stepped out of the doors of the Hotel Xila, a wall of sunlight hit us with a lovely smack to the face. The entire atmosphere had completely changed, now that it was daytime. Instead of rain hitting the pavement and the humming neon lights, there was a stampede of steps hitting the concrete and far more cars on the road. Nico, wasting no time, took to the front and started leading us through the blocks of Chinatown. The streets remained hectic, but a peaceful kind of hectic rather than the cluster of noise I experienced last night. That creeping feeling of eyes beaming into the back of my skull had disappeared but I still remembered the glimpse of the dark warrior that somehow vanished into the crowd.

My senses aren't spiking like crazy, so that must be a good sign.

I tailed at the back of the walking group, as usual. Emile was stuck into whatever music was playing through his magical earbuds, as usual. Flip and I had discussed some things earlier, just some basic planning ahead but for most of the morning he was in conversation with Val who had seemed much more at ease compared to the past couple of days. With some time to myself, I stared at the various shops and restaurants that passed by as we continued walking. The smell of the food seeped into my nostrils and I couldn't stop thinking about what recipes and ingredients I could cook with to recreate those smells.

I've never tried cooking with Chinese Cuisine before…

"Gettin' hungry, Pride?" Emile said to me, barely moving his head as he took one of his earbuds out.

"I'm thinking of cooking, actually," I responded, a little apprehensive.

"You cook?" I could tell there was a hint of curiosity in his tone, hidden underneath the passive aggression.

"I like to cook, if that's what you mean."

"Think you can make me a grilled cheese sandwich?" he mocked.

A shot of air flared through my nostrils. "Put your earbud back in before I throw it in the gutter."

A cheeky little smile passed across his face. It was at that moment I've never been more tempted to push a man into traffic in my life.

One step after the other, Nico wasn't really giving us any indication if we were getting any closer to our destination. To be honest, I didn't mind as I quite enjoyed basking in an uneventful walk through the city. It reminded me of my walks from my apartment to the school.

"Hey, Arthur!" Val called from near the front. "We're trying to settle something; who would win in a fight, Clarisse or Annabeth?"

Ah, nothing like some meaningless but fun debates to pass the time.

"What, like a fistfight?"

"No. Both get access to their usual arsenal. Arena style, first one to yield," Flip explained.

"Nah, to the death," Val added.

"Okay, to the death, I guess," Flip chuckled.

It didn't take much thought for me to decide. "Well, I'd probably have to go with my sister. I don't really know much about Annabeth."

Val pumped her fist in the air. "Hah! I win. That's five drachma."

"Wait, you bet money on this?" I said to Flip.

He ignored me and began arguing with Val. "Well, of course he's going to pick his sister! And you're a Clarisse fangirl, so it's hardly fair. Also, no; I said 'I'd bet you five drachma, Annabeth would beat Clarisse' not that I'm actually betting five drachma on this debate."

"You're a 'Clarisse fangirl'?" I tried holding in a smile.

"What? I think she's cool. Don't make it weird," she said, attempting to brush it to the side.

Oh, I'll remember that little detail for our later talks.

"Annabeth." Emile chimed into the chaos. "She'll always think of something."

"Aha!" Flip exclaimed. "So one more vote for Annabeth and I get five drachma?"

Val scoffed "Oh so now, there's a bet?"

"I'm just playing by your rules, Aldara."

We all turned towards Nico, who didn't even look like he was paying attention to the conversation.

With barely a change in his step, he said, "how much prep time does Annabeth get?"

"Both get a day to prepare," Val answered.

For the first time Nico stopped, causing a ripple effect that ended when it got to me. A moment of silence passed by as nothing was said until…

"Annabeth."

And he continued walking.

Val cursed at herself whilst Flip gleefully haggled her for the five drachma. He was reminded that Flip was the one with all the group's drachma so Val had nothing to give, but he persisted and said he'll remember to ask her later.

It wasn't long after that that we had gotten to where we needed to be. Nico wasn't kidding when he said that we're starting with a statue; the Confucius Statue, to be exact. It stood proudly on the center of a brick surface surrounded by a clump of trees. I didn't know much about the guy, other than he was some extremely famous philosopher. More importantly, I didn't know how his statue was going to help us find what we were looking for. Nico stepped up to the statue's base, which was covered in Chinese characters and its English translation, and traced his hand along its edges before stepping back.

He stared up at the head of the statue. "This statue is one of the many automatons scattered across New York. One of the many planted by Daedalus, and activated by Annabeth in the Battle of Manhattan."

A shard of memory flashed in my mind, as I remembered the first ever nightmarish visions I received. The stone lions that smashed through our lines, crushing me instantly. I remembered the pressure of their heavy paws as I rubbed my hand on my chest.

Those lions must have been the same statues, or automatons, that Nico was talking about.

"What makes Confucius special here is that he's one of the few automatons in the city that have a knowledge bank built into his sentience. His combat function is very limited but we won't be needing him for that anyways."

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Annabeth showed me a thing or two on her laptop. Only a select few people know how to activate these things, Annabeth included. Now these automatons see everything, so if I remember what she showed me then we'll be getting a massive head start."

"Wait, a laptop? But isn't tech–"

Before I could finish my sentence, Flip put his hand on my shoulder and shook his head. His face was mixed with pity and understanding, as he silently told me to 'let it go'.

Damn…

Nico began fiddling with the statue, inspecting all sides and crevices. Emile and Val started chatting about something as they looked at the statue. All I could hear was 'Holland Tunnel'. Otherwise, I was too occupied with watching Nico move around the statue like some sort of weird treasure hunter. I was afraid bystanders and onlookers would notice and immediately tell us off but nobody seemed to care. I remembered reading a brochure when I first got here about top tourist spots to check out. The statue of Confucius was one of the more famous locations, meaning we could get interrupted by a group of tourists any moment.

After a few more seconds of investigation, we heard from Nico what sounded like the closest thing to validation as he pressed a sequence of Chinese characters that were engraved on the front-most side of the base.

He took a few steps back, clearing his throat before announcing firmly to the statue, "Command sequence: Daedalus Twenty-Three. Scan Manhattan. Begin activation."

At first nothing happened, then the eyes of the statue began to flicker and pulsate with light. There was a tense moment between Nico and the statue until it spoke. The light in the statue's eyes blinked to the beat of every syllable of every word. It was strange to think that there were dozens, maybe even hundreds of these machine thingies just hanging about in New York.

"Scan commenced," Confucius said. "What does one desire to see?"

"The Silk Road?"

The statue instantly replied. "You ask for that which I cannot give."

The voice spoke in a monotone manner and sounded like it was coming through a metal grate. I doubt Confucius actually spoke like that.

Nico shrugged. "Worth a shot."

"What does one desire to see?" The statue said again, in that same robotic voice.

The rest of us watched intently as Nico did his thing.

He scratched his head. "Uh, people of special interest. Seen only by the eyes of demigods."

This time, Confucius wasn't so quick to respond. I thought we somehow managed to break him but then he began to rattle off some random people and places that were mere buzzwords to my ears. It started naming off things like the Empire State Building, Central Park, a couple tunnels, some random apartment. All of which Nico hastily skipped through.

"People. Specific people," he specified.

Again, even with the correction, nothing the statue said seemed to catch Nico's attention. A lot of it sounded like possible monsters in disguise, other demigods…

I think it mentioned someone's Mom?

We thought it was about time to pack it up until one more figure popped up amidst the list of names.

"...strange marked man, suspicious hot dog stand–"

"Stop," Nico ordered. "Try the strange marked man."

The statue took some time to process. "Strange marked man: Late 20s, tattoo on wrist, traces of divine signature."

"What's the tattoo?"

"Scanning…" The eyes of the statue turned into swirls of light. "Tattoo: Unknown. No known records of such imagery."

"Weird. Daedalus' knowledge should be pretty extensive." Nico scratched the underside of his chin. "Any related language or culture?"

"Scanning… Most relevant: 30% percent Ancient Greece."

Nico asked one more question. "Location."

"Last known location: USS Intrepid, Air & Space Military Museum, Temple of Ares."

That made me flinch.

The Intrepid is a temple to my… dad?

I've never actually had the chance to go there yet but now I know why Mom was so weird about it whenever I asked if we could.

"Is that all you ask of Confucius?" The statue asked once more.

"That's all."

"Wait!" I jumped forward, standing alongside Nico. I had one question I wanted to ask since I discovered what this thing could do. "Can you find a satyr? Martin Birch. Please."

Maybe if we could get an answer, right now, we could rescue him right away.

The eyes of the statue of Confucius scanned again. "Martin Birch, Satyr: Location not found. Is that all you ask of Confucius?".

Nico let out a sigh. "I think the automaton's memory bank only stores a day's worth of information. After that it resets for the next. Birch would be well off the radar by now."

I guess I didn't know what I was expecting, but I was definitely disappointed.

"It was a good try," Emile said solemnly but he probably knew the extent of an automaton's knowledge more than I did, so he already knew what the answer was going to be.

The statue began to power down after Nico concluded the order. It said one last quote about the 'Great Harmony' before the light in its eyes faded away and it simply sat there like any other statue. Flip though the final quote was a little too on the nose.

The trip to the Air & Space Museum was another leg of journey that we had to get through. Again, it was uneventful but sometimes you prefer that over running from hellhounds or fighting a swarm of mannequins-come-to-life. Obviously we weren't going to walk all the way so we took the subway and then the bus, like any other normal human being. After a few more streets of walking, passing by the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, we found ourselves basking at the massive aircraft carrier docked into the bay. The brochure was nothing like seeing it up close. It slowly made more sense why this would be a temple to the god of war. I had asked Nico why he thought that this could be our 'Waldo' and he simply told me that he 'had a hunch'. That was all.

A hunch is better than nothing, I guess.

The line to the entrance of the museum was moderately long but it gave us time to plan out exactly how we were going to find this marked man, if he was indeed somewhere in here. Flip suggested we split up in groups, which we all agreed was the best thing to do. That way we cover more ground efficiently, and in a place like this that's exactly what we need. Once we start searching, we convene on the flight deck in an hour hoping we've found our person by then. All we know is that they have a tattoo on their wrist, resembling some form of Ancient Greek so we should be able to spot it. When we finally reached the front of the line and Flip paid with his own real money (don't ask where he got it from), we were off. Val and I were a pair whilst Emile and Flip were their own. Nico opted to go by himself as seeing he was the fifth odd member.

Walking through the large battle cruiser, I could definitely feel a strange but also homely aura. I felt grounded and secure, like something telling me that this is where I needed to be. Searching for our 'Waldo' wasn't going to be easy either, considering that this place was pretty packed. Not to mention that the exhibits themselves were definitely the kind of stuff I'm into so Val had to keep me on track at times.

I mean come on, some of these stories are really cool. The experiences that people went through, the innovations in technology that were made. The uniforms, the aircraft, the tanks… I bet Sherman would love it here.

Dienekes would put in a word too, seeing as he would actually remember some of these exhibits, experiencing them firsthand during his time with my Mom, my grandfather and all past generations of the Pride family. There were some things that amazed him too, especially in the spacecraft sections.

One thing I noticed, ever since we were waiting in line, was that a number of birds just happened to be hovering outside and around the massive ship. At first I disregarded it as a group of seagulls, considering we were by the river. But even now, once inside, I could see even more birds as metallic statues situated in certain points of each of the exhibition rooms. They seemed harmless, and nothing about them was setting off my senses. Dienekes told me to be wary, as he always does but those birds seemed more a decorative statement if anything. This was a temple to one of the Greek gods, however, so I am expecting all kinds of weird things.

I guess Ares just really likes birds?

I pointed the detail about the birds to Val and she suggested that, at most, they would be some sort of protectors or guardians of the temple which is very common for temples like these. She also said if they were to be the protectors of this place, that they would only be activated if there was any real threat or any other relevant reason. She was pretty confident that nothing like that would happen as long as we pay our respects to the temple. Which was a fancy way of saying, 'don't touch anything or cause any trouble'.

Like rules for any other museum.

About 30 minutes into the search, we've made almost zero progress. Turns out trying to find a man with an ancient greek tattoo on his wrist in his late 20s, truly, wasn't an easy task. We even tried striking up random conversations with people we thought matched the description. Shaking their hands and all just so we can get a glimpse of their wrist. I'm a terrible actor, so trying to get someone to shake your hand twice with each arm was truly a lowlight in my social skills.

"How are you feeling?" Val asked, marking our first genuine conversation since last night's chat.

"Yeah, fine, I guess," I replied. "This 'Where's Waldo' hunt is a bit of a pain in the ass though."

"Yeah, true. I'm bored out of my mind right now." She stretched out her arms with an audible groan. "But I meant more being in a place like this. A temple to your… father."

I tried to answer the best I could. "It's… weird, I think. I don't know. I never really thought much of the guy so I'm kind of indifferent to it all. I definitely sense some connection to the ship though."

"That makes sense."

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've just never been to a temple of Hermes, or anything. So I've got no idea how it feels."

"You're not missing out on much, in my opinion." I shrugged. "Plus, making an entire aircraft carrier a temple dedicated to you sounds pretty pretentious."

"That's an Olympian for you."

We continued walking past the various glass-cased exhibits and walkthrough interiors of certain aircraft, finding ourselves in the more World War II era-centered section of the museum.

"So did you have a step-dad or…?"

It was a question I've rarely been asked, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear. "Oh, no. It's just been me and my mom, and the occasional extended family visits."

"And that never bothered you?"

"It did at first," I admitted, "but that was a long time ago. I discovered very early on that Mom was enough."

"You must be pretty close then."

"Yeah." I smiled at the thought. I remembered all those times, those birthdays, those vacations, where it was just me and her, and I was happy. I turned to Val. "Did it ever bother you?"

She sighed, a small nod in her movements. "I always wondered what having a dad was like. A dad that was there. Our mother gave us anything but she was never able to give us that."

"Are gods not allowed to see their child or something?"

"It's a little complicated, but the truth is I don't actually really know. A yes or no doesn't quite cut it."

"Oh."

"It was funny though. Whenever Theo and I–" She paused for a moment, like she was still getting used to saying that name. "Whenever Theo and I would ask Mom how she met Dad, it sounded like something straight out of a romcom."

I joined in on her joyful reminiscence. "How so?"

"Oh, it was like; she was this upper-class lady born into a rich family and he was like this, raised on the streets, roguish but charming man… legit straight out of a romance novel."

The both of us shared a laugh.

"Come to think of it, I have no clue how my mom met the god of war. Maybe I should ask next time."

"Be careful though, it could be a touchy subject."

"Oh, right, right." I nodded. "My Mom wanted to be an Army Ranger all her life though, so I don't know how she'd have found the time."

"Wait, your Mom's a Ranger?"

"Yeah."

"Huh, okay cool, cool. Badass." A little air of glee left her mouth. "Maybe, your dad was on the side of the enemy and they met Romeo and Juliet style…"

"Oh gods."

She seemed really dedicated on dramatizing the whole story. "...she was about to kill him, upon their first meeting, but she looked upon this rugged, handsome man–"

"Okay, stop!" I cringed. "How do you come up with this stuff?"

"Perks of having a mind that is constantly going 100 mph."

"And you're always telling us to shut up."

She flicked me on the head. "Shut up."

This was probably going to be our final hanger before having to convene with the others on the flight deck. Val and I spread out in order to scout the whole floor in this one last search for the mystery man. We hoped the others would have better luck than us because so far we've got nothing. This exhibition in particular had a lot of World War II memorabilia, taking me back to some of the stories my grandfather used to tell me of his time of service. Looking up at the tucked away corners of the ceiling, I spotted about five or so more of those metallic birds. So far, so good. Glad we've done nothing to piss off security.

Scanning my side of the hangar, pretty much everyone I saw was either too young or too old for the description. There were a lot of families too, and I doubt one of the dads would just happen to be this shadowy person who can lead us to an extremely discreet center for half bloods. This hangar was a bust. A little disappointed, I decided to spend the rest of the time we had left just enjoying some of the aircraft on display. There was one in direct spotlight, near the center of the hangar. I had thought it looked familiar until I realized it was because this particular aircraft was the standard for the U.S. Navy during the second World War.

I saw it a lot in the movies.

Reading the informational plaque, it was a torpedo bomber; the 'TBM 3-E Avenger'. Around 10,000 were constructed during the time of the war. I took a moment to just admire the large aircraft, the emblem of a star, freshly painted near the tail end. My weapon knowledge had been going off almost every section of the museum we went through, but there was something about the simplicity and sturdiness of this plane that I found fascinating.

All of a sudden, the voice of a man appeared to my right. "The Avenger."

The out-of-nowhere entrance startled me, only to realize it was just another museum-goer, admiring the plane like I was.

"These guys dropped a lot of bombs, bud," he said, almost a slight glimmer of memory in his face when I looked at him. "Called'em Turkeys, thanks to that chubby lookin' exterior."

I examined the plane again, to see that he was right and it was a funny looking body for a plane.

"Saved our asses plenty of times."

"You talk like you were there," I said, expecting a much older gentleman.

"Oh, no. I can just be a patriot sometimes."

Getting a better look at the man, I could see he was a lot younger than I thought he was and a lot taller. His lean, muscular size filled out a black, long sleeve shirt that only had a few buttons at the top. He had on dark, blue denim jeans paired with some brown boots. Hanging behind his shoulder, held by his index finger, was a reddish brown leather jacket that looked like it's seen some action. The black scruff of hair and rugged dark beard that tightly hugged his jaw, made him look a lot older than he actually was. His low and gruff voice made him sound like he was already bored of talking halfway through a sentence. The only thing he was missing was a massive scar on his face to complete the look but he looked completely unscathed in a surprising way. He also had a chain around his neck that disappeared underneath his shirt but I was immediately able to tell that it was a chain for a dog tag. I knew that because I got used to seeing them all my life.

Noticing that detail, I extended our conversation. "But you have served?"

His perception must have been better than mine as he acknowledged my little deduction. "Yeah."

"Thank you for your service." I stretched out my hand. "I'm Arthur."

He shook my hand with a tough grip. "Marshall."

Just as I was about to let go, I spotted a strange marking on the wrist of his right hand. It was like a massive alarm went off inside my head. The mark itself was this weird collage of symbols and hieroglyphics, but I was still somehow able to make out one thing. It was like a weird jumble of words that slowly formed the closer I looked.

'SERES', which my mind automatically translated to 'SILK' in english.

"You gonna let go of my hand?"

Not realizing I was shaking his hand a bit too long for comfort, I quickly released my grip. My eyes still fixated on his wrist.

"Hey, you doing alright there, bud?"

All of a sudden I was nervous. "Uh, can you just please stay here for one moment?"

He looked at me with confusion. "Sure–"

I bolted, hoping to find Val as quickly as possible. Thankfully she wasn't too hard to find on the other side of the hangar. Without a word, I made a stupid expression that blatantly said 'found him!" and the two of us started making our way back to the Avenger exhibit. To my relief, Marshall was still there, nonchalantly glancing at all the nearby information plaques.

The two of us ran up right alongside him.

"Excuse me, Mr Marshall, sir," I said. "Can you come with us?"

"Cute shirts." The man pointed out the bright orange camp shirts. He sighed, rubbing his palm against the back of his neck as he continued reading. "There's five of you right?"

"Yeah," Val blurted out. "Wait, how do you know that?"

Yeah, wait how?

"Those determined looks on your faces when you walked in." He gestured to me. "That dumb expression I see every time someone figures it out… congratulations, you found yourself a merchant."

He saw us come in… he knew the whole time.

"Great, so can you come with us?" I insisted.

"Sure, kid. Can I just finish reading this first?"

"No!" Both Val and I said in unison.

He let out a breath, swinging his leather jacket around so that he could wear it. "Kids these days."

The two of us, with the merchant in tow, started making our way to the flight deck with about 10 minutes left to spare. Clearly, Marshall had no sense of urgency as he would just casually walk whilst we were clearly trying to make some good time. Once we got there, the windy fresh air was definitely a game-changer as the sun reflected off the windows of the various aircraft that stretched out along the entirety of the carrier. There weren't as many people on the flight deck as I thought there would be. In fact, the whole top of the ship looked empty. Just as I noticed this, the pendant began vibrating with an intensity.

"We are not alone," Dienekes grumbled.

Just as he said that, I saw four figures emerge from behind the planes, across from where we entered, on the other side of the deck. I couldn't make out much of their silhouettes, other than the fact that they were clearly armed. I pulled up the sleeves of my Ares Cabin overshirt higher, fully revealing the spartan bracer that covered half of my left-forearm. I could see Val take out one of the pins in her hair, concealing it in her hand.

"You should probably think before doing something stupid," a voice to our left spoke.

And coming out from behind another plane, this time much closer to us, was another figure in a basic hoodie and jeans, who was armed with a sword sheathed at his side. Judging from his familiar age and the clear celestial bronze that made up the blade's hilt, it didn't take long to figure out that these guys were demigods.

So much for getting a headstart.

"Huh, I guess there's seven of you," Marshall said.

It was obvious these five weren't with us, and I think he knew that but I don't think it really mattered to him.

"You're outnumbered, and your friends aren't coming anytime soon," the demigod said. "Let's have a little chat."

I knew me and Val going up against five rogue demigods would be a losing battle, so I reluctantly lowered my guard. I could see that Val still had daggers in her eyes, not willing to let down. I wasn't about to let herself get killed so I had to physically restrain her by grabbing her wrist in the hopes that she would calm down. Eventually she did, but kept her hairpin tucked away in her sleeve, ready to take it out in a moment's notice.

I glared at the demigod. "Fine. Let's talk."

"That includes you, merchant." He looked towards Marshall.

"Seriously?" The man replied. "No offense, I don't take orders from dicks and you kinda seem like one."

The boy demigod laughed in astonishment, glancing at me as he did so. "Wow, looks like you found one with a big mouth."

"I hear that a lot," Marshall responded, so matter-of-fact.

"Then you probably hear this a lot too." The demigod proceeded to draw his sword from and along his scabbard purposefully making a loud, audible scratching of leather as the metal gleamed in the sunlight.

"More than I'd like." Not a change of expression hit Marshall's face other than a slight twitch in his eye.

"Then you know what it means."

I thought I heard a low growl but that could have just been the ship. Still casual as ever, Marshall played along as the three of us were led to the center of the flight deck where we confronted the other four. They reminded me of campers, except that they weren't. I could tell that the light in their eyes had been extinguished, like a candle that had burned for too long. Each person had either a sword or dagger strapped to their side. One of them had a shield whilst another was equipped with a bow and quiver. It was clear that they came ready for a fight. Going down the line, I wasn't able to recognise any of them except for one; the girl with the shield. I've seen that mean looking expression before and the messy braids that made up her hair. Then it hit me; she was part of the group of demigods that ambushed me and Birch.

I remembered her name… Trish.

Her eyes grew wide as if she had the same realization as me. "No fucking way."

All of a sudden a build-up of shock, panic and rage shot out of my mouth.

I glared at her. "You. Where did you take him? Where is he!?"

Instead of responding to me, she just started laughing. My palms started to burn red hot.

"Where… is… Birch!?"

Without even thinking, I nearly sprinted at her but was stopped by the line of blades that put themselves between me, my hands and her neck. Instantly in response, Val drew out her pin that transformed into her rapier until it was an intense stand-off. Marshall stood in the back, where I assumed he was just watching everything unfold. The whole thing felt surreal, I never thought about how I'd react if I saw one of their faces again. But now that I did, it was a swell of emotions and a festering of repressed anger waiting to just explode.

"Trish," the boy we spoke to earlier called to her. "You know this guy?"

"Oh yeah," she said, her eyes gleaming with glee. "This was the dude we found with the satyr we snatched. Nate said he left him to die… guess he was wrong, or a pussy."

"Well, now things are starting to make sense," the boy said, pointing to me. "So, you are the one who thinks you can go on your little rescue mission with your friends and you think you can stop us."

"Stop you from doing what?" I said, my eyes constantly drifting back to Trish. The more I saw that crooked grin, the more I wanted to punch each tooth out one by one.

"Oh yeah, sure, we'll just go ahead and tell you… " The boy paused, as he paced a few steps, spinning his sword in his hand. "Fuck that, are you kidding me? No, we're going to do something different."

I watched as the five of them began shifting their movements, shifting their position in way they could attack at a moment's notice.

It's five of them against two of us. Even if Marshall decided to help, I doubt it would change much. He has no reason to help us anyways… shit, this isn't going to be good.

"You're not finding the Silk Road and you're not going anywhere near that satyr. You try? You die."

A small chuckle came from behind me, it was Marshall muttering under his breath. "Good one."

I ignored the merchant's comments. I tried to focus. I knew it wouldn't be long until the other three got here, so we just needed to buy some time. At the same time, I had to use all my strength to stop myself from slamming into them the first chance I got. I used all the mental tricks I was taught to keep my temper to a steady average so I don't lose control. All I wanted to do was just save my friend and things just kept throwing themselves in front of us. I promised myself that I'm not letting anything get in the way between me and what I need to do, and right now these five are in my way. We found what we needed to complete the next part of the puzzle but now we've got another obstacle to deal with. What was also worrying was how they managed to find us and discover what we were doing.

Either way, I just needed to buy time.

"How did you know we were here?" I asked, keeping calm about everything.

"Christ, again! What makes you think I'm just going to tell you?" The boy scoffed.

"No point in talking with these assholes." Val spoke in a way that made me question who was more furious, me or her. "We can take' em."

Trish giggled. "Bring it on."

"Stop!" I yelled, trying to hold it together, keeping the anger at bay. I did my best to negotiate, say something to stall the fighting just a little bit longer. "We're all demigods aren't we? Personally I don't care whether you're for the gods or not, but killing each other can't be right."

Although, I was just saying things to stall, what was coming out was the truth. I don't really have a hand in the history behind all this but from what I've been told, it's led to some pretty fucked up lives. I also took the sudden hesitation from both parties to shoot Val a look that screamed 'not yet', hoping she got the message.

"That never seemed to bother Olympus or Camp, for that matter," the boy argued. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was dead set in his ways, so were the others.

In the corner of my eye, I could see shadows of movement near the planes on the far sides of the flight deck. And thankfully, Val seemed to refrain from any course of violence, at least for the moment.

"That's not true." I rebutted. "Chiron–"

The boy nearly spat in my face. "Oh, don't feed me the old centaur's 'safe haven' bullshit! That camp was made for war. 'Protecting us from monsters'... I'd rather get torn apart by a cyclops than be a servant to the gods."

Just as he said that, I could feel a sudden shift in the ship's energy. Almost like a slight alteration in its buoyancy, like a massive funny-bone sensation that rang throughout its entire structure. There was a gradual pick-up in the wind that steadily filled the deck. Nobody else seemed to notice it but I did.

"Oh, just stop talking already!" Trish groaned. She then addressed Marshall who was still standing about two feet behind us. "You. Merchant. Get over here. You're not showing these soon-to-be-dead demigods, anything."

"Yeah, I think I'm just going to wait whilst you guys settle this whole thing between yourselves," the man answered with absolutely zero awareness of the tension in the air.

"Hah! You won't have to wait long."

"First of all; I wouldn't exactly be sure of that. And second of all; you dickheads look familiar, have I seen you at the Road before?"

Trish's jaw clenched as she grew impatient, making her way over to Marshall. "Listen here, you son of a bi–"

Out of nowhere, there was a loud crack through the air finished with a thick 'clunk' sound as Trish was knocked off her balance as something hit the inside of her shield. If there was something that physically cut the tension, it would've been whatever that was. Amazed and slightly disoriented, Trish inspected her shield as she found, protruding just above her arm in an extremely precise shot, was a crossbow bolt, the head buried completely into the shield. She snapped the thing off as another voice entered the fray, accompanied by that sly smirk I'd recognise anywhere

"Well hell, slick," the son of Tyche spoke, his dagger drawn from inside his jacket, "you're having a party and you didn't think to invite us?"

On top of the plane that Flip was standing under was Emile, stone-faced, already racking another bolt into his titan-sized crossbow. I could also spot Nico, emerging from behind a helicopter opposite the two so that the five of us effectively surrounded the five of them.

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna wait," Marshall said, as he slipped away to the sideline.

Meanwhile the other five were still having to reorganize themselves, realizing how much time they let slip and now they've got a full fight on their hands. They readied their weaponry as they embraced new and nastier expressions on their faces. All the negotiation and diplomacy left my body like a refreshing shower, the pent-up flames burned brighter.

"Finally." The spartan shield spun open like a wall of bronze with loud rolling of metal as it locked into place. "You're not stopping us from finishing our mission, and you're sure as hell not going to get in my way. You try…"

Val poised her rapier, our minds clicking together. "... you die."